The highlights of more than a century of iconic Portland architecture.

5. Pittock Mansion

ANYLIST OF PORTLAND’S greatest houses would be incomplete without this French Renaissance–inspired sandstone masterpiece. Built by Oregonian publisher and paper-mill magnate Henry Pittock and designed by the prominent San Francisco–based Edward Foulkes, the home grandly reigns over its domain with two wings converging in a massive, elliptical drawing room overlooking the city and the mountains beyond. Nearing the end of his life, Pittock spared no expense, his sense of legacy perhaps best embodied by the family coat of arms carved above the library fireplace. But the house leaves its most lasting impressions in two features: a curving, floating baroque staircase (pictured) that channels both the elegance of Michelangelo and the melodrama of Scarlett O’Hara; and Pittock’s personal bathroom, situated in a windowed turret offering one of the city’s most commanding views. (Open for tours.)

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